1. Field of Invention
This invention provides an ink composition for ink jet recording, which can realize high-gloss images particularly advantageous when the ink composition is recorded on specialty papers, and an ink jet recording method using the ink composition.
2. Background Art
Ink jet recording is a printing method wherein droplets of an ink are flied and deposited on recording media, such as paper, to perform printing. An innovative advance of a recent ink jet recording technique has made it possible to realize the production of images having quality comparable to images produced by silver salt photography or images yielded by high-definition printing realized only by offset printing. This trend has led to the development of inks for ink jet recording that can realize images having glossy impression comparable to the gloss of images produced by silver salt photography, using, in ink jet recording, the so-called specialty papers, which are recording media having a high level of gloss comparable to photographic paper, art paper and the like used in the field of silver salt photography and offset printing. Further, inks for ink jet recording which can realize image quality comparable to the image quality of images produced by silver salt photography even on plain paper, have also been developed.
Inks, which have been generally used for ink jet recording, are water-based inks that comprise water as a main component and a colorant and various additives. Regarding the colorant, the development of pigment-based inks utilizing the properties of the pigment has recently been forwarded because pigments are superior to dyes in weatherfastness properties such as lightfastness, gasfastness, waterfastness, and moisturefastness.
Regarding the above pigment-based inks, inks, which can realize excellent ejection stability, storage stability, color developing properties, and fixation and, at the same time, can realize substantially bleeding- or feathering-free images, have been demanded. To meet this demand, an ink containing a penetrating agent and a surfactant has been developed. For example, a pamphlet of International Publication No. 94/26828 discloses that bleeding can be reduced by incorporating specific acetylene glycol and polyhydric alcohol lower alkyl ether into ink. Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 253166/2003 discloses that the addition of a polyorganosiloxane compound having a specific structure can realize excellent ejection stability, storage stability, color development, and fixation and high image quality substantially free from bleeding.